02/08/12-02/14/12
The chart.
Dr. Luke returns to the top of the charts, in spirit if not in fact. After all, it was the good doctor who launched this whole Clarkson revival, and who got her to the top of the charts last time. And Gottwald's indie-rock infused pop is all over this hit: a Maroon 5 style guitar accents the synth (or is it another guitar?) keeping the tempo, and a snatch of funk guitar accents every bar of the pre-chorus. Twenty-six seconds to the pre-chorus, 42 to the chorus... a classic "get to the fucking chorus."
What does this mean? It means we're fucking back, baby! Finally through with the melodrama queen, with the breakup obsessional, with boring-hand-gesture girl. At least until last night's Grammy performance gets "Rolling to the Deep" back to the top of the charts (assuming there is still someone on this Earth who hasn't bought it yet)... Look, Adele has a hell of a voice (obvious statement is obvious), and "Rolling" does have a great edge and a throw-back soul vibe that earns it major points for distinctiveness (in the brutally tight confines of pop, that is), but for the most part she is a Whitney/Mariah retread and this movie was boring as fuck the first time it was shown. Adele would win American Idol, and that is a death kiss for entertainment.
I'm all for catharsis and empathy in music... just not pop music. Pop music, at it's best, should work in the car and in the club. It is a force for uniting us, to give us a common identity and a common frame for our individual experiences of a point in time. There's plenty of music out there to cry to, and that music should not reach number one... what pains us is way too individualized for that. Except if it's Lana Del Rey, in which case the subversion and artistry of it overwhelms the genre's dollar-store sentimentality.
The rest of this chart is pretty dead, unsurprising for this time of year. We have the continuation our Euro-dance invasion, which, outside of the capable hands of Rihanna, is just obnoxious. David Guetta may have made one of the best dance songs of all time but "Turn Me On" has to be one of the most pedestrian songs ever recorded. "Good Feeling" is David Guetta-era Flo Rida, with his foot undeniably off the peddle. And "We Found Love" continues to be a haunting, danceable, sharp exercise in paradoxes.
Probably the two best songs of the last month, "Niggas in Paris" and "The One That Got Away," are continuing their slow decline, meaning that other than Kelly Clarkson we have little to save us from more Euro-dance cliche and Adele bathos (not to mention the inevitable "Look at Me Now" clones, starting with the ludicrously boring "Rack City") except for "Young, Wild and Free," which, through the genius of Snoop Dogg manages to do sentimentality right in a rap song, and, in the distance, "Someone That I Used to Know," by far the best Belgian song in the Top 40.
Top 10 Quick Hits:
1. Stronger: Dr. Luke wannabe rock-pop, with excellent execution even without the maestro. Not a bar of originality though. 7/10
2. Set Fire to the Rain: Everything that's wrong with Adele in less than four minutes. 3/10
3. Good Feeling: This guy fucking did "Low"! How is he so boring now? 3/10
4. We Found Love: Never breaks the Euro-dance paradigm while sounding 100% original. Rihanna's best song since Umbrella. 8/10
5. Turn Me On: Sounds like 10,000 other songs I've heard, and I don't even like Euro-dance on purpose. 4/10
6. Domino: At least she's not making money off a song about how she doesn't care about money anymore. As mundane P!nk wannabes go, she's only half bad. 6/10
7. Rack City: As a YouTube commenter once said, "I like the part where he says 'Rack City bitch.'" 2/10
8. Young, Wild and Free: Speaking of rappers who like to repeat one phrase until it's drilled a whole into your brain, Wiz Khalifa never seems overmatched on this track, pretty impressive. This track is exactly what high school reminiscing should sound like. 8/10
9. Sexy and I Know It: Eh, it's no "Party Rock Anthem." 7/10
10. It Will Rain: It's like "Grenade" with less death and more drug use. Boring, melodic... Bruno Mars is what he is. 6/10
Monday, February 13, 2012
Sunday, November 15, 2009
You Can't Have a Two-Man Rock ‘n’ Roll Band -- Schwervon in Concert
There’s been two somewhat contradictory musical trends, both of which seem to be accelerating: the emergence of very large bands, like Broken Social Scene, Animal Collective, Arcade Fire and Los Campesinos!; and conversely, a proliferation of two-man bands like the White Stripes, the Black Keys, the French band La Chanson du Dimanche, and a band I had never heard of until seeing them live last night, Schwervon!.
The bands in the second group are all successful (musically, if not commercially) because they play off the dynamics of having only two members, instead of being limited by it. The White Stripes and the Black Keys both utilize their instrumental simplicity to create a primal, roots-rock feel. Especially with the White Stripes, by stripping away everything but the most minimum aspects of the music – a guitar, a drum kit, and vocals – they seem to reach us at almost instinctual level: listen to the riff that opens Hello Operator and try not to at least nod your head to the beat. I won’t pretend that this is what rock should sound like – even the White Stripes get tiresome after a while with their black-and-white (or should I say white-and-red) style – but this is the foundation of rock, everything else is just color, and even if it’s just on a reptile-brain level, this music is addicting and powerful.
La Chanson du Dimanche, on the other hand, use the minimalism as a part of their shtick, using pre-programmed cheap-keyboard drum beats instead of a drummer, and really, their songs are so simple I’m not really sure where a bass would fit in. Which is not to say their music isn’t good – funny, yes, but also melodic and well constructed. Still, I get the feeling that the two-man aspect is really to ensure that people don’t take them too seriously: they don’t even have a drummer, and you want to talk about whether their songwriting is incisive enough? (Actually, their songwriting is pretty incisive, but that’s a topic for another day.)
As for Schwervon!, they rely on the intimacy of the two-man band to create tight, catchy vocal harmonies, and to give them a bit more room to be pop-y without ever being at risk of losing their indie tag, because, really, at their heart these are 3-minute (or shorter) pop songs wrapped in a lo-fi indie production. But that’s not an insult -- it totally works, with strong melodies and deftly constructed back-and-forth vocals between the singers, and the band really sounds like no one else even if they’re not breaking much new ground musically per se. Part of that comes from the nature of their voices -- guitarist Matt Roth sings with a nasally countertenor that immediately brings to mind John Darnielle but also reminded me a bit of the whiny pop of (generally earlier) Chris Collingswood and the easy melody of John K. Samson; drummer Nan Turner for her part is a bit harder to place, probably more because there are just fewer female singers out there to compare her to, but if I had to I’d say she sort of sounds like Kim Deal from the Pixies – but it also has a lot to do with the fairly funny songwriting and the aforementioned tightness of the act, again owing to their nature as a two-piece.
Interestingly, the strongest moments of their set were when they launched into White Stripes style garage band riffs and powerful, simple drumbeats. In person, in a very confined space with a quality sound system, these songs were absolutely monstrous and when combined with the strong harmonies of the duo the effect was mesmerizing. By far my favorite moment of the show was in “Cut it Down,” which is built on a Hash Pipe style blues riff and about as simple of a drum beat as you can imagine. The song builds through two verses and choruses before everything suddenly drops out, and Turner belts out an eerie descending melody that is catchy, unique and utterly unforgettable. That right there was worth the price of admission (well, it was a free concert, but you know what I mean), and when combined with the cheery pop of “Dinner” and the Pixies-style weirdness of “Swamp Thing,” definitely left me feeling satisfied and saved the gig from ever feeling repetitive.
While neither band member is a future performing legend, they were both charismatic and fun to watch (and what can I say, I can watch cute girls play drums all night…). Listening to their MySpace the next day, it seems they selected their music well, picking the more exciting and expressive songs of their oeuvre, and there wasn't a single song that lowered the energy of the set. In fact, the only complaint I have is that the set felt short, but since they didn’t get started until about 11:00 (they were scheduled to begin at 10:00 but has a band ever in history begun a concert on time?) that may have been more a directive from the venue than a personal decision.
Schwervon! will continue touring France for a few before hitting Germany and much of the rest of Europe. Their set is certainly an enjoyable night out, so if they’re in your town and the gig isn’t prohibitively expensive I definitely recommending checking them out (and if you’re American make yourself known to them, they seemed delighted to find out there were some Iowans in the audience).
The bands in the second group are all successful (musically, if not commercially) because they play off the dynamics of having only two members, instead of being limited by it. The White Stripes and the Black Keys both utilize their instrumental simplicity to create a primal, roots-rock feel. Especially with the White Stripes, by stripping away everything but the most minimum aspects of the music – a guitar, a drum kit, and vocals – they seem to reach us at almost instinctual level: listen to the riff that opens Hello Operator and try not to at least nod your head to the beat. I won’t pretend that this is what rock should sound like – even the White Stripes get tiresome after a while with their black-and-white (or should I say white-and-red) style – but this is the foundation of rock, everything else is just color, and even if it’s just on a reptile-brain level, this music is addicting and powerful.
La Chanson du Dimanche, on the other hand, use the minimalism as a part of their shtick, using pre-programmed cheap-keyboard drum beats instead of a drummer, and really, their songs are so simple I’m not really sure where a bass would fit in. Which is not to say their music isn’t good – funny, yes, but also melodic and well constructed. Still, I get the feeling that the two-man aspect is really to ensure that people don’t take them too seriously: they don’t even have a drummer, and you want to talk about whether their songwriting is incisive enough? (Actually, their songwriting is pretty incisive, but that’s a topic for another day.)
As for Schwervon!, they rely on the intimacy of the two-man band to create tight, catchy vocal harmonies, and to give them a bit more room to be pop-y without ever being at risk of losing their indie tag, because, really, at their heart these are 3-minute (or shorter) pop songs wrapped in a lo-fi indie production. But that’s not an insult -- it totally works, with strong melodies and deftly constructed back-and-forth vocals between the singers, and the band really sounds like no one else even if they’re not breaking much new ground musically per se. Part of that comes from the nature of their voices -- guitarist Matt Roth sings with a nasally countertenor that immediately brings to mind John Darnielle but also reminded me a bit of the whiny pop of (generally earlier) Chris Collingswood and the easy melody of John K. Samson; drummer Nan Turner for her part is a bit harder to place, probably more because there are just fewer female singers out there to compare her to, but if I had to I’d say she sort of sounds like Kim Deal from the Pixies – but it also has a lot to do with the fairly funny songwriting and the aforementioned tightness of the act, again owing to their nature as a two-piece.
Interestingly, the strongest moments of their set were when they launched into White Stripes style garage band riffs and powerful, simple drumbeats. In person, in a very confined space with a quality sound system, these songs were absolutely monstrous and when combined with the strong harmonies of the duo the effect was mesmerizing. By far my favorite moment of the show was in “Cut it Down,” which is built on a Hash Pipe style blues riff and about as simple of a drum beat as you can imagine. The song builds through two verses and choruses before everything suddenly drops out, and Turner belts out an eerie descending melody that is catchy, unique and utterly unforgettable. That right there was worth the price of admission (well, it was a free concert, but you know what I mean), and when combined with the cheery pop of “Dinner” and the Pixies-style weirdness of “Swamp Thing,” definitely left me feeling satisfied and saved the gig from ever feeling repetitive.
While neither band member is a future performing legend, they were both charismatic and fun to watch (and what can I say, I can watch cute girls play drums all night…). Listening to their MySpace the next day, it seems they selected their music well, picking the more exciting and expressive songs of their oeuvre, and there wasn't a single song that lowered the energy of the set. In fact, the only complaint I have is that the set felt short, but since they didn’t get started until about 11:00 (they were scheduled to begin at 10:00 but has a band ever in history begun a concert on time?) that may have been more a directive from the venue than a personal decision.
Schwervon! will continue touring France for a few before hitting Germany and much of the rest of Europe. Their set is certainly an enjoyable night out, so if they’re in your town and the gig isn’t prohibitively expensive I definitely recommending checking them out (and if you’re American make yourself known to them, they seemed delighted to find out there were some Iowans in the audience).
Saturday, September 19, 2009
A New Season Takes Me Back
I didn’t realize until I started listening to ESPN’s college football podcast recently just how attached to their college football theme song I’ve become. I guess it was just such a minor part of the broadcast I never really noticed it, but hearing it here, divorced from the actual football game, it was surprisingly evocative. Suddenly I was 16 or 17 again, sitting in my dad’s living room, maybe a bowl of guacamole in front of me, ready for another day of football, except that I was actually hurtling across Paris a mile underground.
While I’ve always been a bit bored by the NFL, the appeal to me is clear. There is nothing else in sports, except, perhaps, the first two days of March Madness and Saturdays in the Premier League, like a day of football – jumping from game to game as teams drive back and forth, momentum shifts, storylines emerge, and the struggle builds to an epic climax, before the next round of games begin – it was (and is) a wonderful way to waste a Saturday.
There are a lot of reasons to love college football. The crowds are passionate and massive, and exert a profound influence on the game (especially compared to anemic NFL crowds). Momentum is perhaps the most important factor in the game: A team can seem completely unstoppable until some momentum swing – a turnover, a huge pass, a big third-down conversion – turns the game around and suddenly the previously dominant team is completely out of sorts. The players play passionately, which results in spectacular success and equally spectacular failures.
I actually think the lower skill level benefits the game. Drives in the NFL can seem mechanical, a collection of three-yard runs and seven-yard passes. A fifteen- or twenty-yard gain is a big play. In college football, weak tackling, greater mismatches and fairly often breakdowns in the defense can result in an 80-yard play at almost any time. Even two evenly matched teams will often have many mismatches at individual positions, and watching a good offensive or defensive coordinator ruthlessly exploit these advantages is enthralling on an X’s and O’s as well as visceral level.
College football is saddled with the worst postseason in sports, but even the travesty that is the BCS cannot destroy the purity, and pure entertainment, of the game. This year, as BYU has a legitimate shot to go to the national championship game and BSU and Utah will both deserve BCS bowls, even if they don’t get them, will continue the erosion of the system’s legitimacy.
But in the meantime, I’m more than happy to sit back on a Saturday, surf the games, and cherish the most fun sport out there. And when I hear that music, I will always be an excited teenager in front of the TV in the living room, even if I’m actually in front of my laptop 6000 miles away.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Millsap, Gortat Matched
Two backup restricted free-agent bigmen's offer sheets were matched this week by teams deep in the luxury tax.
I've suspected from the start that Portland only signed Paul Millsap to an offer sheet to force Utah to unload Boozer, preferably to Chicago who would then send Hinrich to Portland to clear cap room (which would then be used by Utah to pay Millsap). Whatever goal, this was a smart move by Portland -- their worst case scenario was ending up with arguably the best backup PF in the league, though he would be substantially overpaid. Now Utah can either go deep, deep into the tax to field a team that won't contend for anything or must find a way to dump Boozer, a borderline all-star talent (still a good outcome for Portland as they weaken a division rival). I don't see Utah fielding this team as is, as as is is about $14.5 million over the luxury tax (mean they will need to pay $14.5 million to the league in addition to all their contracts), so I expect them to make the aforementioned CHI-POR-UTA trade or perhaps one sending Boozer to the Knicks, with a third team absorbing the difference in salaries (e.g. http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=mtfqtw). Nevertheless, I think Utah made the right choice in matching. Millsap is a great player, and a great guy (only of those things can be said about Boozer) and will contribute for years to come, and Boozer shouldn't be that difficult to move before the trade deadline, when the tax kicks in.
The Magic, after matching Marcin Gortat, are "only" $8 million into the tax, so they could conceivably keep the overachieving backup center. Mid-level money for a top 5 backup big? Sounds pretty reasonable to me, even if he only gets around 12 minutes a game. But if they end up trading him for a 3rd PG and a weaker big, I won't blame them. Gortat is Base-Year Compensation though, which makes trading him without a third team nearly impossible (I don't think, though it's so hard to be sure with the CBA rules, that they can use their own Traded Player exceptions to facilitate the trade). Still good move, and always nice to see an owner willing to go in big to pay for a winner.
So, solid moves all around, after an iffy free agent period to this point. These GM's have shown faith in their players, now it's time for the players to vindicate them.
I've suspected from the start that Portland only signed Paul Millsap to an offer sheet to force Utah to unload Boozer, preferably to Chicago who would then send Hinrich to Portland to clear cap room (which would then be used by Utah to pay Millsap). Whatever goal, this was a smart move by Portland -- their worst case scenario was ending up with arguably the best backup PF in the league, though he would be substantially overpaid. Now Utah can either go deep, deep into the tax to field a team that won't contend for anything or must find a way to dump Boozer, a borderline all-star talent (still a good outcome for Portland as they weaken a division rival). I don't see Utah fielding this team as is, as as is is about $14.5 million over the luxury tax (mean they will need to pay $14.5 million to the league in addition to all their contracts), so I expect them to make the aforementioned CHI-POR-UTA trade or perhaps one sending Boozer to the Knicks, with a third team absorbing the difference in salaries (e.g. http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=mtfqtw). Nevertheless, I think Utah made the right choice in matching. Millsap is a great player, and a great guy (only of those things can be said about Boozer) and will contribute for years to come, and Boozer shouldn't be that difficult to move before the trade deadline, when the tax kicks in.
The Magic, after matching Marcin Gortat, are "only" $8 million into the tax, so they could conceivably keep the overachieving backup center. Mid-level money for a top 5 backup big? Sounds pretty reasonable to me, even if he only gets around 12 minutes a game. But if they end up trading him for a 3rd PG and a weaker big, I won't blame them. Gortat is Base-Year Compensation though, which makes trading him without a third team nearly impossible (I don't think, though it's so hard to be sure with the CBA rules, that they can use their own Traded Player exceptions to facilitate the trade). Still good move, and always nice to see an owner willing to go in big to pay for a winner.
So, solid moves all around, after an iffy free agent period to this point. These GM's have shown faith in their players, now it's time for the players to vindicate them.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Thoughts on the Four-Way Trade
* Well done by Orlando to turn Turkoglu walking into a sign-and-trade. Not only do they get some cold hard cash to help pay their substantial luxury tax, but never underestimate the value of a trade exception. If the Magic are hit with a major injury, the ability to give another team $7 million in cap relief will be invaluable.
* My problem with Turkoglu's contract isn't the amount, it's the length. He already seems to be taking a step back, with his PER dropping from 17.66 to 14.82 last season (meaning, at least by this measure, he wasn't even an average small forward last year). Hedo will be 35 before this contract is even on its last year, and I think the Raptors will be highly regretting having to commit $12 million to a 10th man at that point. On the other hand, thanks to Portland's courtship of the Turkish Michael Jordan, it was clear that Toronto couldn't have signed him on a shorter contract, and the pick up by all reports seems to have made Chris Bosh much more likely to stay (he loves the acquisition), so it may have been worth it after all. Time will tell.
* Shawn Marion, on the other hand, just seems to be overpaid. Eight-million a year for 13-8? Let's compare, shall we?
Shawn Marion: P/40 A/40 R/40
14.4 2.3 9.5
Kris Humphries: P/40 A/40 R/40
17.2 1.5 10.6
So a player included in the trade as filler and who will make only $3 million this year would average 3 more points and 1 more rebound than Marion if given the same minutes (not that Humphries is necessarily a better player, but one would think that similar production would lead to similar salaries). The fact is Marion is being paid because of everyone's memories of the Suns' great playoff runs, and not based on his actual production. Oh, and if you haven't noticed, he has a bit of an attitude problem. At least the Mavericks should be fun to watch this year...
* Another example (along with Pavlovic and Bowen) of unguaranteed money being extremely useful as trade bait. Jerry Stackhouse has an outgoing value of $7 million but can be bought out for around $2 million (which, since teams can send up to $3 million cash in trades, means the receiving team could waive him without paying a dime). I expect to see many, many more contracts with unguaranteed or partially guaranteed final years to continue to allow trades like this to occur.
* On that note, Memphis clear $4 million from their books this year by trading away Buckner and getting back Stackhouse, who will be immediately waived. Buckner was an expiring contract, so on a team not allergic to paying salary he might have come in handy at the trade deadline to pick up some MLE-level talent from a team needing cap relief -- say, Jason Maxiell if all goes to hell in Detroit this year -- but who am I kidding? It's the Grizzlies, they weren't going to spend that money so it doesn't matter.
* Toronto also received two expiring contracts, which are probably too small to put to good use. If they throw Roko in with them -- and I'm not sure if they would -- they could pick up someone making about MLE money. Just something to keep in the back of your mind.
* Overall, I'd say the winner was the Magic, who got a $7 million trade exception and cash from two teams, the loser was the Mavericks who overpaid for a fading star with an attitude problem, with an incomplete going to Toronto (you can really only judge this trade by whether it convinces Bosh to stay, and for that we'll have to wait another year). The Grizzlies broke even, shedding $4 million in salary but losing a tradeable expiring contract.
* My problem with Turkoglu's contract isn't the amount, it's the length. He already seems to be taking a step back, with his PER dropping from 17.66 to 14.82 last season (meaning, at least by this measure, he wasn't even an average small forward last year). Hedo will be 35 before this contract is even on its last year, and I think the Raptors will be highly regretting having to commit $12 million to a 10th man at that point. On the other hand, thanks to Portland's courtship of the Turkish Michael Jordan, it was clear that Toronto couldn't have signed him on a shorter contract, and the pick up by all reports seems to have made Chris Bosh much more likely to stay (he loves the acquisition), so it may have been worth it after all. Time will tell.
* Shawn Marion, on the other hand, just seems to be overpaid. Eight-million a year for 13-8? Let's compare, shall we?
Shawn Marion: P/40 A/40 R/40
14.4 2.3 9.5
Kris Humphries: P/40 A/40 R/40
17.2 1.5 10.6
So a player included in the trade as filler and who will make only $3 million this year would average 3 more points and 1 more rebound than Marion if given the same minutes (not that Humphries is necessarily a better player, but one would think that similar production would lead to similar salaries). The fact is Marion is being paid because of everyone's memories of the Suns' great playoff runs, and not based on his actual production. Oh, and if you haven't noticed, he has a bit of an attitude problem. At least the Mavericks should be fun to watch this year...
* Another example (along with Pavlovic and Bowen) of unguaranteed money being extremely useful as trade bait. Jerry Stackhouse has an outgoing value of $7 million but can be bought out for around $2 million (which, since teams can send up to $3 million cash in trades, means the receiving team could waive him without paying a dime). I expect to see many, many more contracts with unguaranteed or partially guaranteed final years to continue to allow trades like this to occur.
* On that note, Memphis clear $4 million from their books this year by trading away Buckner and getting back Stackhouse, who will be immediately waived. Buckner was an expiring contract, so on a team not allergic to paying salary he might have come in handy at the trade deadline to pick up some MLE-level talent from a team needing cap relief -- say, Jason Maxiell if all goes to hell in Detroit this year -- but who am I kidding? It's the Grizzlies, they weren't going to spend that money so it doesn't matter.
* Toronto also received two expiring contracts, which are probably too small to put to good use. If they throw Roko in with them -- and I'm not sure if they would -- they could pick up someone making about MLE money. Just something to keep in the back of your mind.
* Overall, I'd say the winner was the Magic, who got a $7 million trade exception and cash from two teams, the loser was the Mavericks who overpaid for a fading star with an attitude problem, with an incomplete going to Toronto (you can really only judge this trade by whether it convinces Bosh to stay, and for that we'll have to wait another year). The Grizzlies broke even, shedding $4 million in salary but losing a tradeable expiring contract.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Joe Dumars Dooms the Pistons
This has certainly been a more exciting-than-expected offseason, what with the league-altering moves of the Spurs, Magic and Cavs, as well as some big name free agents finding new teams. The wisdom of some of the moves (looking at you, Toronto) can be doubted, but I'd say it's been a pretty solid couple of weeks.
And then there's the Pistons. I've generally been on board with Dumar's moves up until this point -- he decided (rightly, in my opinion) that Detroit's extraordinary run was about over, and that this was the last chance to sell high on its assets. The move was pretty low-risk: Either Iverson was going to fit in, lead the team to another exciting playoff run, and then become $20 million of capspace, or he was going to become $20 million in capspace. In the end, Dumars just ended up with the latter, but in this market that kind of capspace can get you pretty far. Better yet, Detroit had a half-decent young core to build around and two very tradeable (if a little overvalued) contracts in Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince.
But when confronted with a dream offer, Dumars turned it down. The Celtics offered another giant expiring contract ($20 million for Ray Allen), and a point-guard to build around, for two overpaid players (Prince and Hamilton) and, fatally, Rodney Stuckey. Now, I like Stuckey as much as the next guy... he works hard, plays physical and is fearless on the court. But his absolute ceiling is about where Rondo is now; is there really any possibility Stuckey is going to develop, suddenly, into a championship-level point guard? And Rondo already has a championship, last year, and that was before turning into a playoff triple-double machine. I don't see him ever leading a team himself, but he's already proved he can be a key-cog in a contender. This trade accomplishes everything the Pistons could've wanted, giving them a mound of capspace, young talent, and a release from any long-term contracts. And yet, Dumars didn't even bother to negotiate with Ainge himself, all because of his attachment to some B-level prospect in Stuckey.
So now, after the signings of Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva, the Pistons are stuck in some bizarre middle ground between rebuilding and contending. In fact, since they dumped Amir Johnson, who at least had some upside, but kept Hamilton and Prince, I have to say they're leaning towards contending. But does anyone, including Joe Dumars, really think a lineup of Stuckey-Hamilton-Prince-Villanueva-Kwame Brown (if only in my dreams) is destined for anything more than a first round exit, for now and until Hamilton and Prince come off the books? Is it even better than if they had taken the Rondo deal and maybe swung a sign-and-trade with McDyess to the Blazers, taking back someone with some upside like Martell Webster?
The fact is the Pistons could've been set. They would chill in the basement this year, giving their rookies plenty of playtime, picked up a high lottery pick in the stacked 2010 draft, had limitless cap space to throw at whoever they wanted for the next couple years, and could've easily been back in contention by 2011. Instead, they are destined for mediocrity, not bad enough to pick up a star worth building around in the draft but not good enough to seriously worry the Cavs, Celts or Magic. Joe Dumars has leveraged their future, for no good reason, and will have to live with his decisions this offseason until 2015, when Ben Gordon will receive his last check from the Pistons for a bit over $10 million.
And then there's the Pistons. I've generally been on board with Dumar's moves up until this point -- he decided (rightly, in my opinion) that Detroit's extraordinary run was about over, and that this was the last chance to sell high on its assets. The move was pretty low-risk: Either Iverson was going to fit in, lead the team to another exciting playoff run, and then become $20 million of capspace, or he was going to become $20 million in capspace. In the end, Dumars just ended up with the latter, but in this market that kind of capspace can get you pretty far. Better yet, Detroit had a half-decent young core to build around and two very tradeable (if a little overvalued) contracts in Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince.
But when confronted with a dream offer, Dumars turned it down. The Celtics offered another giant expiring contract ($20 million for Ray Allen), and a point-guard to build around, for two overpaid players (Prince and Hamilton) and, fatally, Rodney Stuckey. Now, I like Stuckey as much as the next guy... he works hard, plays physical and is fearless on the court. But his absolute ceiling is about where Rondo is now; is there really any possibility Stuckey is going to develop, suddenly, into a championship-level point guard? And Rondo already has a championship, last year, and that was before turning into a playoff triple-double machine. I don't see him ever leading a team himself, but he's already proved he can be a key-cog in a contender. This trade accomplishes everything the Pistons could've wanted, giving them a mound of capspace, young talent, and a release from any long-term contracts. And yet, Dumars didn't even bother to negotiate with Ainge himself, all because of his attachment to some B-level prospect in Stuckey.
So now, after the signings of Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva, the Pistons are stuck in some bizarre middle ground between rebuilding and contending. In fact, since they dumped Amir Johnson, who at least had some upside, but kept Hamilton and Prince, I have to say they're leaning towards contending. But does anyone, including Joe Dumars, really think a lineup of Stuckey-Hamilton-Prince-Villanueva-Kwame Brown (if only in my dreams) is destined for anything more than a first round exit, for now and until Hamilton and Prince come off the books? Is it even better than if they had taken the Rondo deal and maybe swung a sign-and-trade with McDyess to the Blazers, taking back someone with some upside like Martell Webster?
The fact is the Pistons could've been set. They would chill in the basement this year, giving their rookies plenty of playtime, picked up a high lottery pick in the stacked 2010 draft, had limitless cap space to throw at whoever they wanted for the next couple years, and could've easily been back in contention by 2011. Instead, they are destined for mediocrity, not bad enough to pick up a star worth building around in the draft but not good enough to seriously worry the Cavs, Celts or Magic. Joe Dumars has leveraged their future, for no good reason, and will have to live with his decisions this offseason until 2015, when Ben Gordon will receive his last check from the Pistons for a bit over $10 million.
Thursday, August 2, 2007
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